APP and Sony Files

This format isn't supported yet indeed, I know Mabula is working on getting more formats supported. In the mean time you maybe could use a different package to convert them to fits and then import..

Thank you for your answer.

For now I'm using PixInsight and Siril.

Both provide conversion to fit (32 bit with PI, and 16 bit with Siril).

Which one would you advice me to use ?

The files have to be converted without debayering, right ?

Does the exported files will have all the informations without loss ?

Regards,

David

I don't know about Siril, but in such case I would use PixInsight and the format-conversion script. The only downside is that it doesn't use the entire raw data frame (PixInsight invokes dcraw to do the conversion), something APP does do, but it works fine nonetheless as a in between step. Until the format is supported that might be the best way.

Hi David @dav78 and Vincent @vincent-mod,

I believe that both Siril and Pixinsight use dcraw for the conversion of the frames to fits, so the results should be the same ideally and they should contain all the linear data without loss of information 😉 so use the application that suits you best I would advice.

I would save it as 16bits though, creating 32bits frames is a waste of space and adds nothing in this case.

I will soon implement Adobe DNG, that will open APP for all other raw formats beside Canon's CR2s Nikon's NEFs by converting raws with the Adobe DNG converter.

After the DNG support, I'll work on the individual raw formats to have them supported straight out of the box.

Mabula

Hi,

A little late, but thanx vincent and mabula.

With exported fits from Siril, it seems to work. I'll try with fits from PI.

But the results are not great (especially with my master flat), I think I still have need to learn how to calibrate my files with APP  😆 

But when working with calibrated files from PI to make a mosaic, the result is amazing!

And the function to delete LP gradient is great, I like the iterative way to create the LP modele.

One thing that will be nice is to add the possibility to choose the box we want to be deleted.

CS, David.

If PI works, APP should definitely work as well, hope you find out how, otherwise I'm happy to assist! And thanks for the suggestion, manually removing boxes would also be nice indeed. These things are pretty "obvious" when you're using it, so my guess is Mabula will have it in a future version. Time... time is the issue at the moment. 🙂

Yes, if it works with PI, it should also with APP. I'll try again later.

With PI, I usually don't calibrate with darks, only bias and flats. The final result looks better without dark, for me at least. But that way, with APP, I cannot make a BPM. Does the calibration with bias and flats only will work with APP?

An other question 😉

I'm trying to reprocess a mosaic with APP that I've already successfully made with PI.

I've loaded the 8 integrated frames from PI, and the result seems to be very good. But the display of the final mosaic with in APP is very strange. When loaded in PI, the is no problem.

With PI, I usually don't calibrate with darks, only bias and flats. The final result looks better without dark, for me at least. But that way, with APP, I cannot make a BPM. Does the calibration with bias and flats only will work with APP?

Yes no problem, you could even do without any calibration. A BPM does work very well though and only has to be created once. It can be used for all data. It's best to use very long darks for that (10 min per sub min I would say), proper flats and a proper deep bias. Takes some work, but if it's a good one, it can be used alongside bias and flats and the need for darks is much less.

I'm trying to reprocess a mosaic with APP that I've already successfully made with PI.

I've loaded the 8 integrated frames from PI, and the result seems to be very good. But the display of the final mosaic with in APP is very strange. When loaded in PI, the is no problem.

Yes that mosaic looks to be very nice (difficult to say), but it looks like you loaded something else in APP, like a model of some sorts. If you want to mail that stack to vincent@astropixelprocessor.com and I can have a look.

Hi Vincent,

About preprocessing converted fit files from Pix, or Siril, I still have issues.

 The stacked picture is in black and white.

If I check "force bayer cfa", the picture is in color, but the flat too, and the overall color have been washed... 

About the mosaic, the same files was opened in both APP and Pix.

I have tried several times, but it doesn't change anything : the resulting mosaic is good, but APP show this kind of gradient instead of the mosaic.

I can't sand you the file because it's 1 Go and my connexion is very poor  😆 

My apologies for not coming back to you a bit sooner, by sheer coincidence both me and Mabula had super busy weeks.

Ok, so this is an issue I've never really seen, to know what is going on exactly I would actually need the file. 🙂 What happens if you save it as a jpeg from within APP and load it again, does it show correctly then or the same? 

Hi,

You don't have to apology, we're all very busy 😉  (family, work, astrophotography...)

I tried to save the files as a jpeg, and the result is fine, even if opened with APP.

It's very strange. I really have to send you this 1Go file. Do you know what hosting solution I should use ?

About preprocessing Sony files, I succeeded to preprocess and integrate 207 fit files converted with Pix. I'm very happy with the result  😎 

But when I tried with 270 files, several times, I have a memory error message.

My computer is a macbook air, I7, 8go RAM, SSD 256 + external SSD 1Go

With Pix, I use to integrate 300 files without any problem.

As my free licence expires in 2 days, I have to know if there is a solution to this before purchasing eventually.

Thanx

First of all, if you're not satisfied with the trial period due to not being able to test it fully, you can message Mabula and ask for a small extension.

For the weird file, you can send it using wetransfer.com and send it to vincent@astropixelprocessor.com.  Regarding the out of memory message, yes that's a thing that simply can't be improved upon a lot. Ofcourse Mabula tries to optimize routines to save memory, but in the end that will be a hard limit. Did you use LNC? You can try to switch that off and see if the result is ok, it saves quite a bit of memory. Otherwise, you can try to integrate subsets, like 100 per integration and combine those later.

I sent you a link to download the mosaic file.

Does it open properly ?

I'll purchase a one year licence to have enough time and test APP fully  😎 

To avoid the memory error message when integrating 300 or 500 files, how much RAM should I have, 16Go, 32Go ?

Well that's awesome, thank you very much! I received the file, will look at it today but have to find some time. 😉

Well, hard to say as it depends also on what settings you use. As much as possible would be my answer then, but still wouldn't advice to go over 200 per integration.

Yes, confirmed. No matter what I try in APP this file gives a weird presentation, loading into other programs works. Might have stumbled upon a bug here, cool! I forwarded the file to Mabula.

Ok, thanx, maybe a bug after merging the mosaic. Let's see if Mabula can find a solution  😉 

About my memory problem, I have rebooted my laptop, set the memory to 4Go for APP and closed every programs. And integration worked with 270 files (fits converted from PI) !  All the indicators were in red, but no memory error message.

So I have my first APP processing image. I will open a new thread because I still have some questions.

Posted by: Vincent Groenewold - Moderator

Yes, confirmed. No matter what I try in APP this file gives a weird presentation, loading into other programs works. Might have stumbled upon a bug here, cool! I forwarded the file to Mabula.

Hi Vincent,

Have you, or Mabula, identified the issue with the weird display of the mosaic ?

Dear @Dav78,

I don't think I have seen the problematic file yet. Is it possible that you send it to me as well? I will have a look at it as soon as possible. You can send it to support@astropixelprocessor.com. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Regarding required memory for integration. The number of frames is not really  a limitation in this regard. The size of the field of view is. So a large mosaic, requires more memory than a small one.

More memory also means more speed in APP.

Kind regards,

Mabula

Hi David @dav78 & Vincent @vincent-mod,

Thank you David for sending the mosaic file to me as well.

I notice that you were running this in APP 1.068. If I load this file in APP 1.070 (and the upcoming release 1.071) then it loads fine:

Perhaps you can download and install APP 1.070 and test if it works okay then and let me know?

Mabula

Hi Mabula,

Thanx for your quick answer.

I've loaded the file with APP 1.0.70 and the weird display is still there.

That's can be due to not enough memory, don't you think ? I only have 8 Go of memory, and you have 32 😉

But it's usually not a problem to run others astro softwares.

Hi @dav78,

Thank you for the feedback.

Maybe the issue is OpenGL related, in APP 1.070, can you try to disable OpenGL with the top left button ? And then load/reload the mosaic and let me know the result?

Mabula

Good point, with OpenGL disabled the mosaic opens properly!

But it's much slower.

For 2 or 3 tiles mosaic, there is no problem when OpenGL is enable.

Dear @dav78,

I think the issue here is related to how large the OpenGL textures can be. This depends on the OpenGL hardware/software implementation.

I will check if I can solve this, so it will be drawn correctly automatically.

Yes, with OpenGL disabled, drawing is done using software code, so it's a bit slower than what OpenGL can do directly using the graphics card's memory.

Mabula